Background

The Scotland’s Buddhist Vihara and Mindfulness Centre was established in Maryhill, Glasgow in 2003, by a Sri Lankan Buddhist Monk of the Therevada tradition, Bhante Rewatha Thero.

He started this project with the intention of teaching traditional Buddhist Mindfulness to devotees and local people from the community who expressed a sincere interest in learning more about the practice.

In 2006, Bhante met Jon Kabbat Zinn when he attended theUniversity of Glasgow to conduct a one-day Mindfulness seminar for healthcare professionals.

Bhante came to appreciate and realise that his traditional doctrines had been integrated with and used, by Western medical community and healthcare professionals.

The social purpose of Scotland's Buddhist Vihara and Mindfulness Centre is to use the principles of social enterprise to:

Provide practice groups for people who are interested in deepening and refining their Mindfulness skill base for application within their daily life, free of charge.

The funds raised from our MBSR and MBCT Courses are used to support 50 - 60 children living in Sri Lanka each year. We provide MBCT Teacher Training to health professionals living in Sri Lanka. We also provide free Introduction to Mindfulness Training for the local community in Glasgow at Hillhead Library.

Since the Tsunami struck on Boxing Day 2004, Bhante has been actively involved in charity work in Southern Sri Lanka.

Bhante Rewatha Thero(BA, MA, PGDE)

Bhante began to study Mindfulness as an educational programme rather than a religious practice or ideology. Therefore, he went to University of Bangor to study more about the secular application of Mindfulness within healthcare and education.

Currently he is doing a research degree at the University of Bangor on the subject of Mindfulness approaches in Healthcare and Education.

In addition to the secular mindfulness courses which Bhante has taught throughout the world including:

Scotland

Japan

Malaysia

Singapore

and America

Bhante also provides courses to universities, charitable and educational authorities. He has created several courses for those who have completed MBSR and MBCT.

Bhante has been a monk for 32 years and was appointed as the Chief Monk (Sangha Nayaka) of Great Britain.

He was awarded this esteemed honour in 2010 by the Sangha Council of Sri Lanka.

He was invited to lead the 'Time for Reflection' at The Scottish Parliament. This was a very special occasion as it was the first time a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk had been invited to address a European Parliament.

He is the author of Mindful Journey

Bhante is also a qualified Religious Education (RE) teacher under the terms of the Scottish Educational Curriculum.

He holds the appointment as the Buddhist advisor at the University of Glasgow and University of Caledonia, as well as their Chaplain/Advisor, he works with students of all faiths.